bookrandom Chapter 62: The slut is up to something, the businessman is here!
Chapter 62: The slut is up to something, the businessman is here!
Chapter 63: The slut is up to something, the businessman is here!
The next morning, the sunlight slanted down, and the warm light filtered through the curtains, gently covering Su Chen's face.
He rolled over, squinted, and reached for his phone to check the time.
9:47. The sun is already high in the sky outside the window.
"Sleeping until this late — I must have been too stressed yesterday."
He muttered to himself as he slowly got up to wash up. As he passed the living room, he remembered the egg in the incubator, so he picked up his toothbrush and went inside.
The egg was the size of a washbasin and sat quietly in the incubator.
[Incubating, countdown: 15 hours!]
"Ugh————"
"They're almost hatched without me even realizing it." With his mouth full of minty foam, Su Chen pondered the egg. He planned to wait until the pet hatched before going out to explore.
In addition, he had another question in his mind: could he go back to the places he had been before—the path with the crooked tree and the depths of the Black Forest?
He still remembered the route; it would be much easier if he could explore it again.
After washing up and changing into clean clothes, Su Chen went downstairs.
A group of people had already gathered in the small square next to the notice board, near the community property management office. The flirtatious young woman I'd seen yesterday was there too; today she was wearing a well-tailored cheongsam, but she was carrying a halberd that would make any man's heart tremble.
Judging from her demeanor, she must be the captain of this expedition team.
"How's your decision? It's not too late to join!"
The young woman ignored the other people around her and winked at Su Chen, who was standing to the side, her eyes sparkling.
A few residents waiting to depart nearby were whispering among themselves: "Wow! Did you hear? That guy was so fierce yesterday because he's some kind of Dragon Kingdom War God," which is why he was able to fight that monster to a standstill. They heard he single-handedly suppressed that disgusting thing!
"Go away! What do you know! I'll tell you a secret: my uncle in the temporary management team said he's actually the Dragon King of the Dragon King's Palace! He told me to never mess with such a ruthless character; I should be grateful if he doesn't mind us being a burden!"
"What's wrong? Have you guys eaten too many mushrooms and are still not awake? Or are you still hallucinating? How can you say such things? Even the kids in the neighborhood wouldn't believe you, but you adults are talking about it as if it's all true. Is that reasonable?"
"It's true! My uncle said he saw the man's mouth twisted with his own eyes—"
"Never mind, I haven't recovered yet, I'll rest for another day."
Su Chen casually made up an excuse to decline.
The young woman didn't expose him, but glanced at him thoughtfully, then smiled charmingly, bit her fingertip lightly, and led the exploration team away from the west gate.
"The defensive fortifications are quite well done; it seems they've learned their lesson."
Su Chen looked into the distance. The arrow tower had clearly been reinforced and renovated, and two old-fashioned catapults stood beside it. Even more striking was another building, completely different from the arrow tower in both size and style, exuding a rugged and intimidating aura.
"Hey bro! What are you looking at?!"
A young man wearing a temporary management team armband, carrying two large boxes of supplies, ran excitedly toward Su Chen.
"Oh, that one," the young man said naturally, following Su Chen's gaze, "That's the turret that Captain Chen just unlocked. It's quite powerful, but the reload speed is a bit slow."
He shook the heavy box in his hand: "This is something Captain Chen specifically instructed me to give you. Take it first, and I'll send you more good stuff later!"
The young man chuckled, giving off a knowing look.
"By the way, brother! If you need any equipment or want to reinforce your home's defenses, just look over there—" He gestured toward a corner of the square, "Old Xun and Old Qi, the craftsmen that Captain Chen just organized, their skills are top-notch! Captain Chen has already spoken to them, and they'll give you priority for anything you need."
Seeing that Su Chen didn't respond, the young man didn't feel embarrassed at all. Instead, he looked at him with envy and said, "Then it's okay, I'll go distribute the supplies first. Right now in the community—sigh, you know the situation."
"Yes, that's good."
Su Chen gave a brief reply. The young man's smile faltered for a moment, then he responded with an even more enthusiastic "Hey!" before turning and running back to the distribution point to begin distributing supplies to the residents in line.
"That's quite a large sum."
Lifting the two boxes, Su Chen roughly estimated that they weighed at least twenty kilograms in total. He hadn't seen what was inside yet, but compared to the distribution point in the distance where each person only received a few kilograms of rice and noodles—the amount of rice was no more than two kilograms at most—these two boxes in his hands were definitely "special supply" level.
He noticed that among the people queuing for relief supplies, there weren't many young and middle-aged men; most were women, the elderly, and even a few teenagers. The young man distributing the supplies visibly paused when he saw the children, his scoop sinking a little deeper as he gave them extra rice and noodles. Others nearby noticed but silently looked away, no one uttering a sound.
The atmosphere around them was somewhat stagnant, with an indescribable sense of oppression.
"Let's go back first."
Carrying two full boxes of supplies, Su Chen was not in a relaxed mood.
It's not far from the property management plaza to the bulletin board, but it's still quite a distance from his building.
As you walk along, you can clearly feel the changes in the neighborhood.
Many people held uniform spears, their craftsmanship noticeably more robust than the crude weapons previously distributed; these were presumably the spears of Old Xun.
Old Qi and his friends' craftsmanship.
Halfway there, Su Chen subconsciously looked up and his gaze swept over the balcony of Unit 2, Building 4, where something seemed to be swaying slightly in mid-air.
He squinted; the object swayed gently in the wind. Upon closer inspection, his heart sank: "That's—a corpse."
At this critical juncture, right after the siege ended, was it suicide or murder?
Su Chen immediately called over several residents who were passing by, and together they rushed upstairs.
Room 803.
The door was flung open, and a crumpled piece of paper fluttered down from the entryway cabinet. Su Chen didn't bother picking it up; he immediately scanned the house: furniture and clothes were neatly arranged, and even the few household items were organized in an orderly fashion. The living room was excessively clean, and on the kitchen counter, three neatly packed packages of supplies were stacked, seemingly having been there for some time. The entire house was tidy and simple, showing no signs of a struggle or intrusion.
A man bent down to pick up the paper from the ground, and after just one glance, his face turned deathly pale.
He silently handed the paper to Su Chen and the person next to him.
The slightly yellowed paper was wrinkled and bulged in several places due to water stains. The neat handwriting written with a black pen was somewhat blurred in the tear stains, but the general content was still legible:
[Liu Liu:]
My son is gone, just last night. My spirits have collapsed. What Captain Chen said last night made sense, but for some reason, every time my wife and I close our eyes—everywhere we look—all we see is our son's image.
A large tear stain spread across the paper, blurring the writing into a dark, wrinkled mess. Those around who were looking at the suicide note felt as if a stone was pressing on their hearts.
He said he left in such a hurry that he didn't have time to tell me everything, that he shouldn't have always talked back to me, and that he was still making us old folks worry about him now that he was all grown up. I said we're old, what else could we possibly worry about? He kowtowed to us, and then—he disappeared.
My husband and I, in our lives, wouldn't call ourselves virtuous people, but we certainly never intentionally harmed anyone. Our child just bought a new house and said he wanted to take us there to enjoy our retirement—you tell me—how could he have passed away so soon?
[I'm not blaming Captain Chen, I know.]
My child is on the front lines protecting us. But my wife cried all night, and now she can't bear to hear anyone mention our child.
I've worked hard my whole life, and in the end—I have nothing left. Tell me, what can I hope for? What can I long for?
[I'm so sorry I found my and my spouse's child. I hope I didn't frighten you. If possible, could you please collect our bodies?]
"It's a bit disheartening to say this now, but thank you so much. There are supplies we've packed in the kitchen; please take anything usable from the house. Helping others in any way is our last wish."
At the end of the suicide note, on a new line, was a sentence written in exceptionally neat small characters:
[I'm sorry for the trouble.]
For a moment, only the heavy, suppressed breathing of a few men filled the living room. The women who had come to check on the situation looked at the suicide note and couldn't stop wiping away tears.
"What's going on? What's happening at Old Liu's house—"
A man wearing an armband pushed open the door, panting. He started to ask a question, but seeing the expressions on everyone's faces and noticing the two figures swaying gently in the breeze on the balcony, he immediately understood. He sighed deeply, his voice low and trembling slightly: "Write it down."
"Building 4, Unit 2, Room 803. Number of deaths: 2. Cause of death: suicide for one's child."
Behind him was a middle-aged man responsible for taking notes. Hearing this, the man just kept his head down, the pen tip making a soft "scratching" sound on the paper. He would occasionally raise his arm and quickly wipe the corner of his eye.
Su Chen's gaze swept over the notebook, which was already filled with many lines of writing.
At the end of the last few columns, each column simply states the cause of death: cause of death.
At the end of the notebook, a line of small print read from top to bottom: "Love suicide, hanging, martyrdom for grandson" —
"Old Lin, go and check on these two elderly people to see if there are any abnormalities in their health and if they need any special treatment."
The speaker was an expert recruited by the temporary management team, responsible for environmental early warning and sanitation management in the community.
The atmosphere in the room was somber. A middle-aged man wearing glasses sighed and, together with several others, carefully lowered the bodies of the two elderly people from the balcony and laid them flat on the ground.
"There's nothing special about this. These two are similar to the previous cases of lovers committing suicide together; they couldn't get over that psychological hurdle. There are no signs of contamination or decay in their bodies, so they can be buried according to normal procedures."
"Is burial okay?"
"No problem. And from an environmental perspective, burial can actually increase the fertility of the soil in the community."
"What nonsense are you spouting?!" The man wearing the armband abruptly interrupted the expert, glaring at him fiercely.
H
'
A chilling silence filled the room. The already oppressive atmosphere in room 803 suddenly tightened after the expert's untimely remark about "increasing fertility." Several people looked at the expert, Old Lin, their eyes practically spitting fire.
Su Chen shook his head. Seeing that someone was handling the situation and it was under control, he turned around and went home first.
Putting down the two heavy supply boxes in his hands, Su Chen opened them to take inventory.
一个箱子里装着：16瓶矿泉水、3斤鲜五花肉、1斤绿叶蔬菜，还有一整板共24个鲜鸡蛋。另一个箱子里则全是主食：10斤大米和10斤麵粉。
The temporary property management team in the residential community has indeed shown a clear allocation of resources.
With so much food, if we eat it sparingly, it's enough to last a family of two for almost half a month.
Remembering the spontaneous trading market that had formed in the neighborhood, Su Chen put away the 16 bottles of water, and then packed out 5 kilograms of rice and 5 kilograms of flour into bags, preparing to go downstairs to try his luck and exchange them for something else.
Just as he was leaving, he bumped into a man who was going door-to-door collecting gas data. Looking at the densely packed numbers in his notebook, Su Chen became curious.
"Young man, don't you know?" Seeing Su Chen's confusion, the man forced a smile and explained, "Captain Chen said that from now on, the water..."
Electricity and gas will be supplied in rations. Each household will be allocated a fixed amount; if the quota is exceeded, the property management will automatically cut off water and electricity. I will be in charge of the gas supply.
Seeing that Su Chen was still a little surprised, he added, "However, Captain Chen has also opened up the purchasing channels. People who need extra supplies can buy them separately, and the price is—not too bad."
"I see."
Su Chen nodded thoughtfully.
He lives alone, so the quota shouldn't be too tight, but the thought of having to carefully budget his water and electricity bills makes him feel a little uneasy.
Carrying the prepared exchange supplies downstairs, Su Chen thought of the taste of instant noodles. In the past few times, convenience foods like instant noodles and compressed biscuits had been consumed extremely quickly, and now he was actually craving them. He didn't lack other supplies for the time being, so he wanted to exchange them for some "junk food" to change things up.
Just as Su Chen spread out the sheets and arranged his things on the trading street, he saw someone swaying past his stall.
"Two buckets of instant noodles! Women under 30 can come to me! Fair trade, no cheating!"
"Two buckets of instant noodles!"
"This guy is still alive? Just how much instant noodles did he hoard?!" Su Chen glanced at him and saw that the man was tightly holding two buckets of spicy beef noodles, but his overall demeanor and behavior seemed very strange.
Considering this person's less-than-clean reputation, Su Chen didn't want to get involved with him, even if he had the instant noodles she wanted.
"Wait, where did that woman go?"
Not long after the instant noodle vendor walked past his stall, Su Chen caught a glimpse of a familiar, furtive figure out of the corner of his eye.
It's Lin Yu.
"Where is she going?"
Su Chen stood up and watched Lin Yu sneak into Building 13, his mind racing.
Ignoring the strange looks from the other stall owners around him, Su Chen decisively packed up his newly set-up stall and quickly followed.
As soon as Su Chen reached the entrance of the unit on the first floor of Building 13, he smelled that familiar, faint fragrance—it was right above him, seemingly busy with something.
He silently ascended the stairs, slowly approaching. He saw Lin Yu intently fiddling with a peculiar metal strip, completely oblivious to the figure lurking below.
After a short while, the setup was complete. The tip of the metal strip in Lin Yu's hand emitted a dense, rain-like laser beam, which was aimed at the security door of 607 and scanned continuously for more than a minute.
Immediately afterwards, a few crisp, light "click-clack" sounds rang out!
The tip of the metal strip quickly extended seven or eight centimeters, and based on the data collected from the scan, it rapidly changed shape, eventually solidifying into the shape of a key!
"Playing this high-level game?"
Su Chen was somewhat surprised and carefully watched Lin Yu's every move through the gap in the stairwell.
"This isn't acceptable?!"
A soft, exasperated mutter escaped her lips. Lin Yu put away the metal strip, her face darkening, and turned to go downstairs.
Just as he turned to the side, Su Chen appeared from around the corner of the stairs.
"you----!!"
Beside Lin Yu's hoodie pocket, her hand was hurriedly stuffing the metal strip into her pocket.
Their eyes met. Neither of them spoke first, but instead, they walked silently, one after the other, to the outside of the unit door of Building 13.
This area is near the edge of the residential area, and there aren't many people coming and going.
"What do you mean? You also think that slut is acting strangely?" Lin Yu, shameless as ever, broke the silence first, pretending that nothing had happened.
Su Chen didn't say a word, but calmly extended one hand.
He had been eyeing the thing Lin Yu had just used; he guessed it was some kind of high-tech universal key. And judging from Lin Yu's skill level, it certainly wasn't the first time he'd tried to open that door.
Lin Yu's face was cold and she was speechless. She knew that being caught red-handed wouldn't be so easy to get away with, so she reluctantly and somewhat annoyedly slapped the metal strip into Su Chen's palm.
"Doomsday lockpick. Judging by the metal fatigue level, it can probably be used seven more times."
"Alright," she said irritably, "what were you trying to say again?"
Su Chen smiled and took the "Doomsday Lock Picker" into his pocket.
"—"
"I said, don't you also think that woman is dangerous?" Lin Yu was a little annoyed, and repeated the question, "Otherwise, why did you follow me here? What treasure do you want from me?"
"Indeed," Su Chen's smile faded, "This woman is acting strangely. And I always feel like there's something off about the way she looks at me; it might really be what you said."
"What's the same?" Lin Yu asked, puzzled.
She has a crush on me.
"If you keep talking nonsense, I'll really get angry!"
"Alright, enough joking around." Seeing that Lin Yu was getting a little agitated, Su Chen said seriously, "This woman looks thin, but she knocked on my door before to test me. When I asked her why, she just made up an excuse."
"You deserve it." Lin Yu rolled her eyes at him.
Su Chen concluded, "In short, after testing her, she is definitely not a simple character." Su Chen continued, fiddling with the newly acquired lock-picking tool in his hand.
"Yeah, I could tell when we fought that boss last time." Lin Yu nodded. "Without real skill, you couldn't have wielded that halberd so skillfully, clearing out the surrounding area."
Lin Yu frowned as he thought of the terrifying scene of the young woman wielding a weapon.
"So what do you mean now? What's your purpose in following me?"
"Nothing special. I just saw you sneaking over here, and I was curious too." Su Chen shrugged.
"Then—how about we form an alliance?" Lin Yu pressed her advantage. "I'm not as—wicked as her. I won't offend others unless they offend me. Besides, our previous deal was fair and just, right?"
Taking advantage of the young woman's conversation, she learned that Su Chen was wary of that person, and quickly proposed an alliance.
If we can get Su Chen on the same side, today's trip won't have been in vain; in fact, it might have been a huge win.
Su Chen thought for a moment and nodded: "Okay."
Forming an alliance with Lin Yu doesn't seem like a bad thing.
At least for now, the benefits gained from her have already exceeded the investment.
"Really?" Lin Yu's eyes lit up.
"Should I change my mind?"
"You really need to shut your mouth!" Lin Yu was furious, but she visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
A moment later, a verbal alliance was reached, and Lin Yu visibly relaxed a lot.
"Why are you carrying a bag?" Only then did she notice the backpack on Su Chen's back.
"Take out the extra food and water and exchange them for something else," Su Chen replied casually.
"You should have said you had extra food! I'm short of this, you can trade me for more." Lin Yu's face lit up with joy as she looked at Su Chen's bulging backpack and couldn't help but ask, "What kind of things do you have?"
"It depends on what you want."
Lin Yu: "??"
A moment later, the transaction was completed. Su Chen traded 5 kilograms of rice, 5 kilograms of flour, and a small bag of palm-sized freeze-dried vegetables for a palm-sized portable rechargeable battery and a pair of night vision goggles from Lin Yu.
Both were satisfied and prepared to leave.
Suddenly, a ring—ring—ring—
A crisp bell rang out.
The ringtone wasn't loud, but it was exceptionally clear, piercing straight into their ears. Strangely, the two couldn't determine the direction of the ringtone's source by hearing alone. It was as if the sound wasn't traveling through the air, but rather it had struck them directly beside them the instant they heard it.
Lin Yu seemed to suddenly remember something, her expression changed, and she frowned as she looked at Su Chen.
But then she heard the man beside her speak in a deep, certain voice: "The merchants have arrived."
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